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Nobel Prize: Chemistry in everyday life

Receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is a great honor. The laureates are rewarded for years of hard work. Many of their discoveries still influence our lives today.

1980: Decoding our genetic makeup

It took 13 years to decode the entire sequence of the human genome. The result: Three billion components and roughly 20,000 genes make humans what they are. This knowledge is in part thanks to the work of Walter Gilbert and Fred Sanger. They received the Nobel Prize for their methods of exact DNA-sequencing.

1988: Powerplant in a leaf

The most important chemical reaction on Earth can be observed in the woods: Photosynthesis. Plants, algae and bacteria use sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. Certain protein compounds in the cells are responsible for this. Robert Huber, Hartmut Michel and Johann Deisenhofer researched this mechanism and earned a Nobel Prize for their work.

1991: Getting the picture through nuclear magnetic resonance

Heart, brain, bones – an MRI can show all that in detail and help discover tumors, for example. The basis for this diagnostic tool is the high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Richard Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in developing the process.

1995: Saving the ozone layer

Thanks to the ozone layer, people can get tan more or less safely – if we put on sunscreen. Ozone filters out the majority of the sunlight's harmful UV-B-radiation. Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland received the Nobel Prize for finding out what destroys the ozone layer: nitrogen oxide and chlorofluorocarbons.

1996: The soccer molecule

Never heard of "fullerenes?" It's easy to picture them – just think of a soccer ball. It consists of numerous pentagons and hexagons. 60 carbon atoms are assembled like this in the most famous fullerene. Robert Curl Jr.m Sir Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley received the Nobel Prize for describing the fullerene structure.

1997: Energy through ATP

Adenosintriphosphat (ATP) is to our cells what coal, wind, or solar power are to us. Without this universal "energy currency," we couldn't flex our muscles. An adult human uses half his weight in ATP every day! Sir John Walker received the Nobel Prize, because he was able to explain how ATP is produced in the cell.

2003: Water for the cell

Water pipes pump fresh water into a house and waste water out. Our cells' water supply works in a similar way, as Peter Agre showed in 1988. 15 years later, he received the Nobel Prize for discovering the protein that regulates the water passage through the cell membrane. This pipe process is universal: It works for humans, animals, plants and bacteria.

2005: Green chemistry

Protecting the environment and saving resources and energy. Thanks to Robert Grubbs, Richard Schrock und Yves Chauvin, these goals of green chemistry are no longer uptopian. The Nobel laureates found an elegant way to produce complex chemical compounds, now used by the pharmaceutical industry, for example. They rebuilt existing natural compounds in an efficient, environmentally-friendly way.

2008: Light in the darkness

This luminous umbrella is actually the jellyfish Aequorea Victoria. Its fluorescent green protein is used in numerous areas of biology. One of the facilitators of this technique was Nobel laureate Martin Chalfie. He used the glowing protein to mark cell parts of a nematode, or roundworm. That opened up a host of possibilities, like understanding the how nerve cells function.

2009: Factories of life

DNA directs the makeup of a cell's different parts. These parts are produced by tiny factories, the ribosomes. Humans would tend to specialize their activities in such a situation, but each ribosome produces thousands of different cell parts. Ada Yonath, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz received the Nobel Prize for discovering how these factories work.

2011: Frying with quasicrystals

Should you ever burn your scrambled eggs, think of Dan Shechtman's discovery: quasicrystals. He received the Nobel Prize for discovering them. Structured like an oriental mosaic, they may soon be found in frying pans as an anti-stick-layer.

2012: Receptors for good taste

Billions of them are located in our body: Receptors can be found on the outside of every cell. Through them, cells can examine their surroundings, move and communicate with other cells. The "G-protein-coupled receptors" are important to perceive taste or smell. Americans Brian Kobilka and Robert Lefkowitz earned the Nobel Prize for exploring this protein family.

2013: Chemistry and computers

US researchers Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel laid "the foundation for the powerful programs that are used to understand and predict chemical processes." The Nobel Prize committe says "computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for most advances made in chemistry today."

1980: Decoding our genetic makeup

It took 13 years to decode the entire sequence of the human genome. The result: Three billion components and roughly 20,000 genes make humans what they are. This knowledge is in part thanks to the work of Walter Gilbert and Fred Sanger. They received the Nobel Prize for their methods of exact DNA-sequencing.

1988: Powerplant in a leaf

The most important chemical reaction on Earth can be observed in the woods: Photosynthesis. Plants, algae and bacteria use sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. Certain protein compounds in the cells are responsible for this. Robert Huber, Hartmut Michel and Johann Deisenhofer researched this mechanism and earned a Nobel Prize for their work.

1991: Getting the picture through nuclear magnetic resonance

Heart, brain, bones – an MRI can show all that in detail and help discover tumors, for example. The basis for this diagnostic tool is the high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Richard Ernst was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in developing the process.

1995: Saving the ozone layer

Thanks to the ozone layer, people can get tan more or less safely – if we put on sunscreen. Ozone filters out the majority of the sunlight's harmful UV-B-radiation. Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland received the Nobel Prize for finding out what destroys the ozone layer: nitrogen oxide and chlorofluorocarbons.

1996: The soccer molecule

Never heard of "fullerenes?" It's easy to picture them – just think of a soccer ball. It consists of numerous pentagons and hexagons. 60 carbon atoms are assembled like this in the most famous fullerene. Robert Curl Jr.m Sir Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley received the Nobel Prize for describing the fullerene structure.

1997: Energy through ATP

Adenosintriphosphat (ATP) is to our cells what coal, wind, or solar power are to us. Without this universal "energy currency," we couldn't flex our muscles. An adult human uses half his weight in ATP every day! Sir John Walker received the Nobel Prize, because he was able to explain how ATP is produced in the cell.

2003: Water for the cell

Water pipes pump fresh water into a house and waste water out. Our cells' water supply works in a similar way, as Peter Agre showed in 1988. 15 years later, he received the Nobel Prize for discovering the protein that regulates the water passage through the cell membrane. This pipe process is universal: It works for humans, animals, plants and bacteria.

2005: Green chemistry

Protecting the environment and saving resources and energy. Thanks to Robert Grubbs, Richard Schrock und Yves Chauvin, these goals of green chemistry are no longer uptopian. The Nobel laureates found an elegant way to produce complex chemical compounds, now used by the pharmaceutical industry, for example. They rebuilt existing natural compounds in an efficient, environmentally-friendly way.

2008: Light in the darkness

This luminous umbrella is actually the jellyfish Aequorea Victoria. Its fluorescent green protein is used in numerous areas of biology. One of the facilitators of this technique was Nobel laureate Martin Chalfie. He used the glowing protein to mark cell parts of a nematode, or roundworm. That opened up a host of possibilities, like understanding the how nerve cells function.

2009: Factories of life

DNA directs the makeup of a cell's different parts. These parts are produced by tiny factories, the ribosomes. Humans would tend to specialize their activities in such a situation, but each ribosome produces thousands of different cell parts. Ada Yonath, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz received the Nobel Prize for discovering how these factories work.

2011: Frying with quasicrystals

Should you ever burn your scrambled eggs, think of Dan Shechtman's discovery: quasicrystals. He received the Nobel Prize for discovering them. Structured like an oriental mosaic, they may soon be found in frying pans as an anti-stick-layer.

2012: Receptors for good taste

Billions of them are located in our body: Receptors can be found on the outside of every cell. Through them, cells can examine their surroundings, move and communicate with other cells. The "G-protein-coupled receptors" are important to perceive taste or smell. Americans Brian Kobilka and Robert Lefkowitz earned the Nobel Prize for exploring this protein family.

2013: Chemistry and computers

US researchers Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel laid "the foundation for the powerful programs that are used to understand and predict chemical processes." The Nobel Prize committe says "computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for most advances made in chemistry today."